Why did I keep this a secret?! (the woman who knocked me sideways)

Do you ever look back on something you did and think, what were you thinking???“

Twelve years ago, I went to a conference and had my SOCKS KNOCKED OFF by (read: sobbed uncontrollably during the performance of) a woman who I suspect is Not Of This Earth.

It was at a conference called Emerging Women. The headliner was supposed to be Dr Maya Angelou (!!); sadly she passed not long before, so she was replaced by Brené Brown (!!!). Danielle LaPorte and Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues and an absolute legend whose speech I can remember almost word for word) were also speaking. But I honestly would have paid the $1000 (early bird!!) ticket price just to see one woman.

I was reminded of this experience yesterday when she COMMENTED on an INSTAGRAM VIDEO that I MADE:

Of course, I was totally chill in response:

LOL.

Anyway, saying all that wasn’t the “what was I thinking?” moment — many years ago, I realised that most people don’t get enough praise and being aloof is overrated, so I gush like this fairly regularly. The weird choice I made was that, after that conference 12 years ago, I did a write up for the my mailing list (the Yes Yes Family), BUT I didn’t make it public. I put it on this site in a secret corner that could only be found with the specific link. In retrospect, that was maybe because I didn’t realise either that most people don’t get enough praise and that being aloof is overrated, and I was TERRIFIED of looking uncool, lololololol) BUT! Now…

…we are long past those days. So here I am, putting it on the blog! You can read it here:

(written 12 years ago:)

Here’s what happened on Friday night:

The whole room, all 500 of us, were giving her a standing ovation – but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to jump up on my chair, then clamber over everyone ahead of me, stepping on shoulders and heads so I could get to the stage and rugby tackle her into a hug and never let go.

I spent last weekend at the Emerging Women Live conference. I knew it’d be good – the ticket was spenny ($1k early bird)(I know), but a ton of heroes and favourites were speaking there – Danielle LaPorte, Brené Brown (BRENÉ FLIPPING BROWN!!), Kris Carr. Eve Ensler – a new hero, and writer of The Vagina Monologues – was giving the closing keynote. I knew I’d have fun. But I absolutely wasn’t expecting to be knocked completely sideways by a total stranger.

Dominique Christina spoke on the main stage on Friday night. She had half an hour – 20 minutes of chat, and two poems. Performance poetry is not a genre I [was at the time] particularly drawn to. For me, it has some pretty grim connotations – shouty people speaking their truth, in a way that usually makes me cringe wildly. But…

…but Dominique Christina is…other. Literally, she is the kind of amazing that makes me feel like she’s perhaps Not Of This Earth.

Those 30 minutes – I honestly would have paid my $1000 just for that. During both the poems, I wept – sobbed, actually – and not because they were sad, just because they were SO POWERFUL.

Late that night when I got home, I dug around online to find out more – and then wrote her an email, gushing, telling her I hoped I’d get to see her and hug her, but if that wasn’t ok, this was me hugging her from my mind to hers.

(At this point, I should point out that Emerging Women Live is very… Spiritual Woman-y. There’s a lot of me holding space for you to show up and bring your authentic self, if you know what I mean. So I was in that zone)

The next day, Dominique Christina was leading a workshop, where she talked about all the different archetypes of women she’s been wrestling with for a book she’s writing on creativity. I swear, every word this woman says.. is just amazing. Every. Word.

I found myself frantically zooming forward in my head 

What will I say to her afterwards? How will I describe this workshop to people? I kept having to think, “Marsh! BE HERE NOW! Instead of thinking about the ways you’ll tell people what this workshop was like, how about actually being present AS IT’S HAPPENING?”

Afterwards, I asked for a photo with her – something I NEVER do (unless it’s a sports star or comedian that I think will impress my stepson). I just felt like I needed to prove to myself that I’d been in the room with this exceptional being. I told her, “I don’t know whether I want to follow you around the country, or just cling to your leg and never let go”.

Honestly, this is the most excited I’ve been about anyone or anything in a long time (and as you know, I can get pretty excited).

All of us at the conference agreed that it feels like she’s on the cusp of exploding into the mainstream. So I wanted to tell you about it, buddy, because I know that you (like me!) love to get on stuff before most other people do.

Here she is reading a poem I love – a pretty good example of why I feel so knocked out by her. The pre-amble is 1min50 if you wanna scoot past (but honestly, the pre-amble is pretty amazing too!).

You can find her on Instagram here: instagram.com/dominiquechristina and find a list of all her books of poetry, here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8133576.Dominique_Christina

Over to you: in the comments below, lemme know what you think OR lemme know how YOU respond when you encounter your heroes on social media. If you’re as embarrassing as I am, share and make me feel better in the comments below!

Thanks for reading.

You rule!

xx (Yes Yes) Marsha

*My Insta video that Dominique Christina commented on was about how an essential part of community is chafe, and that we have to accept that if we don’t want to be lonely, we need to be in community with people we find annoying.

PPS if you’re here for the speaking/presentation advice, you can get my Ultimate Keynote Template, here: YesYesMarsha.com/Template

PPS Want me to help you make sure your next talk, presentations or keynote is AMAZING? Or do you work somewhere that might want to bring me in to run a training on writing excellent presentations or storytelling? I’d love to! Book in a free chat here: yesyesmarsha.com/call

PPPPPPS want my free guide to the magic bullet for captivating storytelling, along with free coaching via email on storytelling and writing captivating presentations? Join the Yes Yes Family — it’s FREE! Just pop your details in below and I’ll ship the guide over**:

**you can unsubscribe whenever you like because, clearly, I am not the boss of you